Mom of 3 sentenced to 28 months in UK jail for taking abortion pills after the 10-week legal limit

• A woman in the UK was sentenced to 28 months in jail for a late-term abortion, the Guardian reports.
• The mom of three told providers she wasn't as far along in her pregnancy as she was.

A mom of three in the UK has been sentenced to 28 months in jail after admitting to using abortion pills to end her pregnancy after the 10-week legal limit, The Guardian reported.

During the pandemic, pregnant people were authorized to use a "Pills by Post" program to access abortion medications until they reached the tenth week of pregnancy.

The woman, per the Guardian, told providers at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service that she was under the limit and received two medications — mifepristone and misoprostol — from the organization to end her pregnancy in May 2020.

She later admitted to a judge that she knew she was around 28 weeks pregnant. Doctors concluded that when the pregnancy ended, the fetus was around 24 to 32 weeks along, the Guardian reported.

Several groups have spoken out against the sentence, and a collection of medical professional organizations sent a letter to the judge, raising concerns that jail time in the case would deter other women from receiving abortion telemedicine care or seeking emergency help in cases of abortions.

According to the Evening Standard, Pepperall called the letter inappropriate and said the groups should instead lobby Parliament to amend the law that bans abortions after 24 weeks. He said he didn't believe the sentence would serve as a deterrent.

The 44-year-old woman, who Insider is not naming, has experienced depression after the abortion and has received mental health care since ending the pregnancy, the Guardian reported from the courtroom.

"This crushing sentence is exactly why it's so important that abortion is decriminalized in the UK," Mandu Reid, the Women's Equality party leader, tweeted in response to the woman's sentence.

"It's a national scandal that women are being criminalized for seeking healthcare. I send my solidarity to the woman who has been sentenced and her family."